Just planted a Brooklyn White in the ground and saw this article on figs in Brooklyn. I like the image of the Italian immigrant bringing a branch from a family fig tree from back home.  Letting it go dormant during the long journey and then planting it in Brooklyn.  Makes me wonder if there is an untold story connected with my little tree?  Fun to think about.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/dining/in-brooklyn-an-abundance-of-fig-trees.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www

What a great article, thanks for sharing!!!!

These wonderful stories bring back so many memories of my long lost childhood.  I thought my aunts and uncles would always be around, and I spent many happy times picking figs with one of my aunts who gathered the figs and carried them in the front of her apron, which she folded up like a temporary pocket.  It was all good then.

These kind of stories transport me back.  Thanks for the short trip to yesteryear.

Frank

Thanks for sharing your memories.  My daughter was watching a brown turkey fig ripen and kept asking when it was ready.  We went outside each day to check on the progress.  It became a good lesson in being patient.  She picked one too early and finally let one ripen to a deep black.  Hope I’m creating memories with my own family.

I am tempted to bid on ebay when I see unidentified figs for sale with a story about how it has been in the family for years.  You figure a family moving to this country would pick the fig that a represented a family treasure.   I’m going to look for more figs from Italy to New York during the cutting season.    

Bummer!  All our immigrants in Southern CA are from Mexico or Viet Nam or??...  We get no Italians or Greeks or French or Spanish or anything exciting like that!  And they don't grow figs in Mexico, do they?  Where are our stories?  Feeling left out here in Southern California....

Still, wonderful article, and I want you to know it brought tears!  Thanks for posting!

My grandpa had a fig tree, and I hated those figs!!  He probably brought it from Michigan or NY... but... OMG horrible!

Suzi

Suzi, come on. IN California you have pollinator wasps and no real freezes. I saw a beautiful huge pomegranate in Mexico filled with fruits. And you can grow Mangos there. All those Fig trees from Eurasia must have started from seed somewhere, so you can look around in Cali and find some decent wild ones. And Mexicans have prickly pears, Manila Mangos, Annatto, Habanero peppers, Allspice.  Prickly pears are actually amazing, and they grow easily also in Sicily where they adapted and grow in the wild. Anyway Mexico is amazing, has many different climates. I am sure they have figs as you can see here:


http://mexicocooks.typepad.com/mexico_cooks/2009/07/a-fresh-look-at-mexicos-tianguis-street-markets.html

Higos--figs, at the peak of maturity and ripeness--enjoy a relatively long season here in Mexico.  We recently paid 100 pesos for two kilos of beautifully ripe figs and prepared half a dozen jars of you-don't-want-to-know-how-good fig conserve.  Later this winter, spread on a toasted and buttered bolillo (small loaf of fresh-baked bread) from ourtianguis, served over ice cream, or licked off the finger, the conserve will be an intense memory of summer.

that is 1.8 USD per lb.

http://www.dipity.com/tickr/Flickr_higo/

Suzi, Suzi, Suzi...you left out the huge Portuguese population here in San Diego. That's where I found the three figs from the Madeira Islands; Abebereria, Branca and Preto. I'm sure if I took the time to search Little Italy I might come up with a few ethnic figs from Italy too. Ya just got to know where to look and not be afraid to ask. :-) There's a healthy Greek community here too, check out the Greek Festival they have every year...great food.

Sue

Wonderful article...great comments.

The fig tree is the only fruit tree that I can think of that is so respected, cared for, nurtured, and, even venerated like a patron saint.   It is mourned when it dies. 

What other fruit tree inspires such a devoted following?



Frank

>>> It is mourned when it dies.

Maybe one of us should hunt it down and make sure it does not!
I am sure that this person will be happy do give some cuttings for propagation.

Way back, there was a similar concern about Sal's Fig (Corleone) from
Belleclare being lost since they were closing shop.
Nobody in the FF seemed to have it...

At the last minute, I went and bought the very last two starters left
(one of them for a famous fig friend). Some (possibly most)
of what FF members now have can be back traced to those two twigs (BC#31).